Chapter 7 - THE GHOST IN THE MACHINE
The woman in the leather jacket looked at Sophia with an expression of profound, aching sorrow. She was older, with streaks of silver in her dark hair, but the resemblance was undeniable.
“Mom?” Sophia whispered, the word feeling entirely foreign on her tongue.
The woman smiled a sad, broken smile. “Hello, Claire. It’s been a long time.”
“You’re dead,” Sophia breathed, stumbling backward. “My mother died in a car accident when I was a baby.”
“Your adopted mother did,” the woman corrected gently. “I am Maria Rossi. Marcus is my brother. And I am the one who gave you to your adopted father that night.”
Adrian groaned on the floor, struggling to keep his eyes open. “Maria,” he rasped. “You’re late.”
Maria knelt instantly beside Adrian, pulling a trauma kit from her leather jacket. “Stop complaining, Cross. You knew this was the plan.”
Sophia’s head was spinning so fast she felt nauseous. “Plan? You two know each other?”
“Adrian found me three years ago,” Maria said as she quickly packed Adrian’s wound with hemostatic gauze. “He realized Marcus was hunting for you. We’ve been working together ever since to dismantle Marcus’s empire from the inside. We needed to draw Marcus out into the open, away from his compound.”
“By using my wedding as bait?” Sophia asked, a flash of anger cutting through her fear.
“By giving Marcus an irresistible target,” Maria corrected softly. “You. And the distraction of a fake scandal.” She looked kindly at Elena. “I’m sorry you were pulled into this, Elena. But it was the only way to get you out of Marcus’s house alive.”
Elena just clutched the adoption paper, weeping in relief.
Maria pulled a heavy radio from her belt. “The police are closing in on the crash site above us. But Marcus didn’t stay. He retreated to his private clinic in the warehouse district.”
“Why?” Sophia asked.
Maria locked eyes with her daughter. “Because he knows we have his ledgers. The ones hidden in the silver rosary. With those, the FBI can lock him away for life. But Marcus won’t run until he gets what he wants most.”
“Me,” Sophia said.
“No,” a voice rasped from the floor.
Paul was conscious. He was bleeding from a cut on his head, his hands zip-tied by Maria, but he was staring at the radio on Maria’s belt.
“Marcus doesn’t want you anymore, Sophia,” Paul coughed. “He knows the Feds are coming. He wants his leverage.”
Paul looked at Elena.
“He didn’t retreat to a clinic to hide. He went there because that’s where they’re keeping Elena’s newborn nursery.” Paul grinned a bloody smile. “He’s taking the baby.”
Elena let out a scream that shattered the silence of the tunnel. “He can’t! My baby isn’t due for weeks!”
“He induced labor this morning,” Paul wheezed. “Before the wedding. The child is his bloodline. He won’t leave the country without it.”
Sophia looked at her mother. Then she looked at Adrian, who was fighting to stay conscious.
May you like
She picked up Paul’s discarded gun from the floor. The heavy steel felt terrifyingly natural in her hand.
“Where is the clinic?” Sophia asked.
